Bricklaying and repointing in Merley
Wall tie repairs, repointing, brick replacement, lintels over garage openings and front walls, across Merley and Canford Magna.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Bricklaying and repointing
Brickwork in Merley: what we do, and what fails first here
Merley brickwork is nearly all cavity work of a similar age, so the same faults come up again and again: joints weathered back on the windward wall, a crack running level along one course where the wall ties have rusted, and a sagging brick course over a garage opening. All three are repairs. None of them means the wall has to come down.
Most people ring us about one of three sights. Mortar that has gone back behind the brick face on one elevation, usually the one with nothing in front of it. A horizontal crack that runs along a line of bricks rather than stepping up through the joints. Or a front wall, planter or entrance pier that has cracked, leaned or been clipped by a car.
We come out and look at the building, not at a photograph, because on this sort of house what looks like tired pointing and what looks like structural movement are often the other way round. You get a straight view of what needs doing now, what can wait, and an itemised written price if you want one. The site visit and the quote are free.
The work
The brickwork jobs we do in Merley
Wall tie repairs. The commonest structural job on houses of this age, and Merley is one cohort ageing together: better than three quarters of it went up between 1945 and 1982, half of that in the 1970s and early 1980s. Ties across the cavity corrode, the rust takes up more room than the steel did, and they jack the outer leaf apart. You see it as a crack running level along the same course rather than stepping up through the joints, often on the gable and at regular intervals up the wall. Remedial ties go in through small holes, the leaf is stitched where it has cracked, and the holes are made good with matched mortar. It is a day or two of work rather than a rebuild, and it stops a wall that would otherwise keep opening.
Merley walls were built with a hard mix and a thin, neat joint. Once the weather has taken that joint back behind the brick face, water sits in it and a frost lifts the face off. We cut out to sound mortar, match the mix and the sand so the colour sits right, and put the profile back as the wall has it, bucket handle or weather struck where the weather comes at it and flush where the original was, with a sample panel up on your own wall before an elevation starts. Wide openings for garage and patio doors are the weak point: a steel lintel rusts and lifts, the soldier course above it drops, and a crack opens at each end. We prop, cut out, fit the right lintel and rebuild over it, and bricking an opening up for a conversion is the same trade in reverse.
Front walls, planters and piers. The low front boundary walls, brick planters and gate piers that went in with the houses are shallow footed and take the traffic. A planter built tight against the house is worse than it looks, because the soil in it bridges the damp proof course and puts water into the wall behind. We rebuild bowed lengths, reset coping, take out planters that are causing damp, and bond piers into the wall instead of standing them on the end of it. Where a face has blown we cut the brick out and blend from a reclaimed batch, because a brick of that era has fifty years of weathering on it and a new one beside it never quite matches. Stacks with no fire under them still take weather on four sides, and matching a 1970s facing brick is most of the job on any new work here.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
One team from first visit to last, and the price broken out by elevation so you can compare it line by line. There is no conservation area over Merley itself, so on an ordinary house repointing and brick repair are maintenance and need no application, and Planning Portal guidance on external walls covers where that stops and a change of appearance begins. It is worth a check towards Canford Magna, where the village and the school buildings are among the twenty six listed entries and the council keeps the listed building records for this area. On a listed building repointing counts as alteration and needs consent before a joint is opened. Structural work goes through building control, and a wall shared with next door brings in Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
Cost
What decides the price of a brickwork job
We do not price by the square metre. A detached house you can walk right round, a bungalow with a conservatory hard against the back wall and a house reached only down a narrow side path between two garages are three different jobs. Getting a tower or a scaffold to a stack or a gable is its own line on the quote, because work at height rules govern how long it stands. What sets the hours is how deep the joints have to come out and whether the faces have already spalled. Ask what the mortar mix is and whether it was matched.
If something has moved
Loose brickwork, or a wall that has shifted
Ring rather than use the form. Anything overhead or leaning jumps the queue. The first visit is about making it safe and stable, and we price the permanent repair once we can see how far the movement goes. Here it is usually a front wall clipped by a car, or an outer leaf opened where the ties have gone. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
The one local thing
Merley was built in one go, so it ages in one go
Almost the whole of Merley went up inside a short run of years, most of it in the 1970s and early 1980s. That matters more than it sounds. Every house on a street got the same wall ties, the same mortar mix, the same detail over the garage opening and the same low front wall, laid within a few seasons of each other.
So they do not fail one at a time in a random order. They come to the end of the same detail at roughly the same time, which is why a road can go years with nothing happening and then have three houses with cracked gables in the same winter.
The useful part of that is you can see your own future in the street. If a neighbour has had remedial ties in, look at the same elevation on yours, because the ties are the same age and in the same wall. If two houses along has a dropped soldier course over the garage, it is worth someone looking at yours before the crack arrives.
It works in your favour on price too. Where two neighbours want the same elevation done, one visit, one set up and one lot of access is cheaper than two, and we will say so rather than quote each of you as if the other did not exist. It also means we can tell you what we found next door in plain terms, so you are deciding on evidence rather than on a hunch.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
Merley is about six miles from the yard and we are through BH21 most weeks, over to Bearwood, Canford Magna, Broadstone and Wimborne, and down into Poole. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.
Questions
Merley questions we get asked
Why has our whole street gone at the same time?
Because the whole street was built at the same time. 77.0% of Merley went up between 1945 and 1982, and half of it in the 1970s and early 1980s, so the mortar went into those walls within a few years of each other and it is wearing out together. Three neighbours ringing in one month is usually that rather than a bad batch of sand.
What do you check on a detached house here?
The perps first, then the bed joints under the cills, then any movement joint the builder left. Detached houses are 49.0% of Merley, so there are four full elevations and no neighbouring wall sheltering any of them. We tap the faces for hollow brick, check the airbricks are clear and chisel one joint open to see how deep the soft mortar runs before anything is priced.
Why has the drive pulled away from the house?
The slab sits on the cohesive ground under Merley, which shrinks and swells at a significant rating, and it moves with the seasons while the house on its deeper footing stays put. Once the joint between them opens, every downpour on the drive runs straight into the gap and down beside the foundation. We cut a proper gap, seal it, point the base of the wall and let the slab move where it wants.
Does radon matter if we extend at the back?
Only for the new floor. Merley sits in a 3 to 5 per cent radon affected band, which calls for basic protection built into a new slab, so it is a detail for an extension or a garage conversion. It has nothing to do with repointing, rebuilding a garden wall or replacing a lintel in the existing house. If we lay the slab, the barrier goes in as part of it.
Canford School is listed. Does that reach our house?
It does not reach an ordinary house. There are 26 listed entries around Merley and Canford School accounts for several of them, John of Gaunt's Kitchen included, but listing attaches to the building itself and not to what stands near it. Merley has no conservation area either, so Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council treats a repoint as maintenance. We still run the address past the list at the visit.
Nearby, and next door
Bricklaying and repointing near Merley
Bricklaying and repointing nearby
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Get the wall looked at properly
Tell us what you can see and which wall it is on. We will come out, check whether it is the pointing or the ties, and put an itemised written price in your hand.